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Kashmir Fighting Precedes New Talks On Border Dispute

February 21, 1999|By From Tribune News Services.

LAHORE, PAKISTAN — Gun battles raged in Kashmir and more than 1,000 Pakistani protesters demanded that India pull out of the bitterly disputed Himalayan region on the eve of a weekend summit between the two rivals.

Billed as a historic event to open an era of peaceful negotiations, the two-day talks in Lahore were to begin Saturday after Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee rides the inaugural trip of a cross-border bus service.

The first premier from either side to visit the other's country in almost a decade, Vajpayee will hold wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Security was tightened in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province, and hundreds of journalists--many arriving on a special flight from New Delhi--poured into the city.

Protesters, whose numbers swelled to more than 1,000 after Friday Muslim prayers, vowed to stop Vajpayee from setting foot on Pakistani soil and called for a city-wide strike Saturday.

"Any friend of Vajpayee's is an enemy of Pakistan," chanted the protesters, underscoring the domestic opposition Sharif faces from conservative Islamic groups.

The Islamic groups see the summit as a sellout to allay Western fears of rising nuclear tensions after India and Pakistan conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests last year.

The protesters said they fear that the Kashmiri issue, the main irritant in 50 years of mistrust and the cause of two wars, might be shelved to improve ties between the two neighbors.

At least 14 people were killed Friday in battles in Kashmir territory held by India, where militant groups are fighting for the region's independence of merger with Pakistan.